Novelty toy duck



Nov. 10, 1970 P. M. TOMARO NOVELTY 'IOY DUCK 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 27, 1969 I INVENTOR.

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NOVELTY TOY DUCK Filed Jan. '27, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 lllllll I v 2/ INVENTOR. Zdirwf/f N. Tamara NOV. 10, 1970 p, TOMARO 3,538,639

7 NOVELTY TOY DUCK Filed Jan. 27, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet s wg a CONTROL CIRCUIT v 3/ 55 I INVENTOR. .lainwk HIV/1mm m, z fumed 1117' RAM'YSY United States Patent O 3,538,639 NOVELTY TOY DUCK Patrick M. Tomaro, Maplewood, N.J., assignor to Remco Industries, Inc., Harrison, NJ. Filed Jan. 27, 1969, Ser. No. 794,051 Int. Cl. A63h 33/26 US. Cl. 46-232 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A toy duck is provided which simulates actions and noises of a live duck and which is remotely controlled by a whistle. The duck has a cam-actuated noisemaker controlled by its driving motor which allows it to quack in sequential groups more like a real duck and has a bill action coordinated with the quacking sound. The waddling motion of the duck is controlled by a whistle blown by the child and received by a microphone or the like. The microphone circuit is inactive during the period of action of the duck, and so, is not affected by the quacking.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a toy with a degree of realism that, it is believed, has not previously been achieved.

Toy ducks have, of course, been made, and so have ones that are motor operated. There have, likewise, been toy ducks that have the ability to move and simulate a waddle and also to quack. None of these, however, have been adapted for remote, non-wire control, such as by sound waves. Indeed, such a sound control is a problem, since the noise of the quacking, and the noise of the motion, can themselves affect the sound control. Thus, the realism of an independently moving duck, with a true quacking noise has been missing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION My invention provides a moving, waddling, quacking duck, having a highly realistic effect for a small child. It is controlled remotely by sound waves.

The duck is operated by a small battery-powered electric motor. The motor, through a gear train, operates eccentrically mounted driving Wheels, which give the duck a waddling motion as it moves across the floor.

The motor also operates a cam and lever arm which serve to periodically compress and release a bellows-type noisemaker which simulates a quacking sound. The cam arrangement is such that the duck quacks for a series of, say, three times and then is quiet for a period, thereafter repeating the quacking. Associated with the cam arm is a linkage connected to the bill of the duck. This linkage causes the bill to open and close in synchronism with the noise itself.

The motor itself is controlled by a circuit that responds to a sound receiving means such as a microphone. When the sound is received, it actuates the circuit and turns on the motor; the motor runs for a predetermined period of time and then shuts off. During the period of operation and for a short period such as a second, thereafter, the control circuit is not responsive to sounds, and so the duck does not affect the operation and turn on the circuit again, nor do any noises associated with the stopping of the operation at the end of a predetermined time.

The child turns on the toy simply by blowing a whistle of a frequency to which the sound receiving means is responsive. The duck then moves with its waddling motion, quacks in its programmed sequence, and continues its motion for the predetermined period of time. It then stops and must be started by blowing the whistle or other noise.

THE DRAWINGS The drawings show the structure and operation of the toy duck as follows:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a duck of the type included in my invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section taken on line 22 of FIG. 4 through the middle of the duck; it shows the general construction of the workings of the duck.

FIG. 3 is a more detailed view of the motor and gear train of the duck, taken on line 33 of BIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 44 of FIG. 2

FIG. 5 is an elevation showing a portion of the motor control circuit and the battery, taken on lines 5-5 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section taken on line 66 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing showing the circuit arrangement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A general view of the duck 1 of my invention is shown in FIG. 1. The duck has a moderately realistic appearance but may be fanciful if desired. The duck includes a body 2 and head 3 with bill portions 4 and 5. It is supported on the floor by a freely rotating wheel 6 and two larger eccentric wheels 7 and 8 (see FIG. 2).

The ducks feet, such as 9, are simply for appearance not function. The entire animal is preferably some form of a molded plastic.

The general grouping of the parts of this toy is best seen by examining FIGS. 2 and 4. Eccentric drive wheels 7 and 8, oppositely centered, are shown toward the rear of the duck. These are actuated by motor 15 through gear train 16. Power to operate the motor comes from battery 17; and the motor is controlled through a circuit generally depicted by the numeral 20, actuated by microphone 21.

Quacking, is accomplished through a bellows-type noisemaker 25, of a standard type. Associated with noisemaker 25 is lever arm 26 mounted upon pivot 28. One end of lever arm 26, end 29', presses against the top of normally expanded bellows 25. The other end 40 of arm 26 rides along the surface of cam 27. It is pressed against the surface by the upward spring pressure on end 29 caused by bellows 25. The surface of cam 27 has a series of projections 41, 42, 43 and 44.,It also has a surface 45 having no projections. With this cam surface arrangement end 40 of arm 26 is pressed upwardly several times in immediate sequence and then remains quiet for a period, thus simulating the quacking of a duck. Cam 27 is associated with gear train 16 and rotates upon energization of motor 15.

The motor 15 serves to drive the duck and animate it. Motor 15 is connected through a series of reducing gears identified as gear train 16. The final gear of the train is connected to axle 18 which carries wheels 7 and 8. Axle 18 does not go through the center of wheels 7 and 8, but rather is slightly off center so that the wheels are eccentrically mounted. The mounting of the wheels is such that they are not in phase with one another. As a result, rotation of axle 1-8 by motor 15 results in rotation of the wheels 7 and 8 which, because they are eccentric, cause the duck to move forward with a waddling motion. This eccentric relationship can be readily seen in FIG. 6 where, in a particular position of the wheels, the duck is leaning to the left as seen in the drawing.

Motor control is through a series of switches. Battery 17 is connected to the motor through three switches: (a) an on/off switch 22, (b) a control circuit 20, and (c) a motion control circuit 24. Control circuit 20 and motion control circuit 24 are in parallel. They are in series with on/ofif switch 22, battery 17, and motor 15.

On/ off switch 22, is a rotary switch controlled by knob 24. It can be any desired structure, but in the form I have adopted is simply an arm 24 which rotates against a piece of spring metal contact arm 34 which when pressed downwardly contacts the upper pole of battery 17 to hold it against the battery. Contact 34 is then connected through lead 35 to control circuit 20.

Control circuit 20 is electrically connected to microphone 21. Circuit 20 is normally open, but is designed to close when the microphone receives a noise of sufiicient intensity and, if desired, of a pre-determined frequency.

When closed, motor will operate ,(provided switch 22 is closed).

Motion control circuit 24 is in parallel with control circuit 20. It is designed to short circuit control circuit and cause the toy duck to be animated for a pre determined time period. Contact 23 of circuit 24 is operatively associated with a notch in one of the gears 37 in gear train 16. Being of spring metal, contact 23 tends to press down into the notch 38 in gear 37. Rotation of gear 37, however, presses contact 23 upwardly against another piece of metal 39 and so closes a circuit between gear train 33 and 39. Gear 37 should be made of plastic or other non-conducting material.

Thus, it can be seen that, once the control circuit 20 is closed and has caused the motor 15 to start operating, gear train 16, will commence rotating, particularly gear 37. Arm 23 will then be pushed upwardly out of notch 38 and will close a contact with contact 39, shorting out the control circuit. The motor then will continue to operate until gear 37 has made a complete revolution and arm 23 again drops down into notch 38. This will serve to open the circuit and stop motor 15 until it is again actuated by control circuit 20.

The result is that the duck commences motion upon receipt of a sound from a whistle blown by the child, or from any other desired source; the motion continues for a cycle of pre-determined length; and, during operation, it is not affected by the other sounds, such as its own quacking. This, then, provides a cycle of operation of a pre-determined length which is not re-set, recommenced or otherwise affected by the noises made by the toy, such as quacking, during its operation.

In a toy such as this, actuated by a microphone, there is always the possibility that extraneous sounds, other than the desired whistle blown by the child, will also serve to actuate the toy. Under such circumstances, once started, the toy may continue to operate; it could even be turned on again by its own noise as it stops operation at the end of a cycle. To avoid this problem, the present toy is designed so that the sound receiving means, such as the microphone, is de-sensitized during its period of operation and for a short period, such as a second, thereafter. As a result, the duration of operation, once started is mechanically determined as with switch 23 of circuit 24 and is on longer controlled by the sound responsive means.

To accomplish this, the control circuit 20, actuated by micropsone 21, serves only to start the operation of the device. Thereafter control circuit 20 is shorted out, as above described, returns to its normally-open position, and the toy operates through one full cycle is determined by rotation of notched wheel 37 acting with switch 23. Further, the control circuit is so designed so as to be desensitized for a limited period after the completion of a cycle. This period may be varied but preferably of the order of one second, so that stopping noises do not affect it.

Various circuits to accomplish this time delay purpose may be readily designed. Usually the time delay is accomplished by use of RC circuits. My preferred circuit, however, is that time delay case shown in pending application of Patrick M. Tomaro, Ser. No. 718,409, now Pat. No. 3,458,950, filed on Apr. 3, 1968.

Having described my toy duck and its method of operation, in one particular configuration, I do not, however, mean to be limited by this particular structure. Variations may be permitted and still remain within the scope of my concept.

What is claimed:

1. A sound controlled toy which movesand makes a noise during operation, said toy including a motor within said toy to drive same, a noisemaker operated by said motor, a control circuit for said motor, said control circuit including timing means to continue operation of said motor for a pre-determined period after starting sound receiving means connected to said circuit, said circuit being actuated by sound waves received by said sound receiving means to start said motor, and means for de-sensitizing said sound receiving means during operation of said toy whereby, upon receipt of a sound, said toy will start and will operate for a pre-determined period of time, unaffected by its own sound, and will then shut itself off.

2. A sound controlled toy as set forth in claim 1 in which said toy is a duck and said noisemaker produces a quacking sound.

3. A toy as set forth in claim 2 including cam means operated by said motor, said cam means controlling said quacking to cause the quacking to occur in sequential groups.

4. A toy as set forth in claim 3 including a pivoted bill on said duck and a linkage operatively interconnecting said bill with said cam means to cause motion of said bill coordinated with said quacking.

5. A sound controlled toy as set forth in claim 1 including means for de-sensitizing said control circuit for a second pre-determined period after said first predetermined period so that said toy will not be atfected by receipt of sound after shutting itself off, for said second period.

6. A sound-controlled toy as set forth in claim 5 in which said sound receiving means and said control circuit are, together, adapted to respond to sounds of a predetermined frequency.

7. In an animated toy adapted to be actuated by sound, which toy emits noise when actuated, a control circuit for said toy including receiving means to receive said sound, a sound controlled circuit operatively associated with said receiving means for causing actuation of said toy, a timing circuit in parallel with said sound controlled circuit and adapted to de-sensitize said sound controlled circuit for a pi e-determined cycle period, whereby said toy may operate for one cycle period without being re-cycled during said period by receipt of external sound or noises emitted by said toy.

8. In an animated toy as set forth in claim 7 a time delay circuit operatively associated with said soundcontrolled circuit, said time delay circuit including means for continuing the de-sensitization of said sound-controlled circuit for a pre-determined period after the end of said cycle period, whereby noises caused by the stopping of said toy will not re-actuate said toy.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,629,203 2/1953 Brown 46104 2,983,072 5/1961 Crawford et al. 46-104 X 3,060,630 10/1962 Collischan 4698 3,120,079 2/1964 Glass et a1. 4698 ANTONIO F. GUIDA, Primary Examiner J. N. ESKOVITZ, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

